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David Jaffe Announces Drawn to Death as PS4 Exclusive

I had a blast playing this game. The interaction with the devs after playing the game was just a nice touch on them hearing you out on your take with the game.
 
I definitely enjoyed the aesthetic and nice to see what Jaffe comes up with, having no creative limitations. Will follow this one, seems like Gotham Imposters with hyper-violence and a unique artstyle.
 
The Xtortionist said:
So I played a total of five matches today. For anyone who doesn't know, Drawn to Death, as showcased at PSX, is a four player deathmatch-style third person shooter. Similarities can be drawn to Twisted Metal, as there are multiple characters to choose and each of them has two unique special attacks, along with additional abilities. For example, three of the characters can press L1 to perform a quick lateral dodge on ground or in the air, but the fourth presses L1 to temporarily cloak instead.

Mechanically, the game is very dense. Each character can double jump and three of them can perform the lateral dodge. One character can press L1 in the air to fly around the map. This character also triggers a self-destruct when they die, which is completely unique to that character. I believe every character has a "rage mode" ability (triggered when below a certain health %), though I didn't encounter any others. I'm addition to the double jump and dodge, each character has two special attacks and two firearms, with additional weapon pickups across the map. Unlike Twisted Metal, where specials are generally a character's bread and butter, the specials in Drawn to Death feel more situational. As a result, I didn't use them much, though the strict time limits for the demo discouraged experimentation.

Player health is high in Drawn to Death. Like, really high. Not frustratingly so, but it takes a large number of shots to down a player. The upside is that there's no regenerating health, except for one specific character. There are health pickups on the map, though the regen health character can't use them. There is also a very minimal (if at all) level of auto aim, so shooting feels very skill based and rewarding. Health is even tied into the spawn system, which sees your character freefalling into the arena. The longer you freefall, the more health you spawn with, so you can spawn quicker with less health or slower with more health.

Scoring is handled interestingly. As mentioned, the game right now is a four player FFA deathmatch. The first player to 5 points wins, and kills are worth one point. The kicker is that dying makes you lose a point, adding an insane level of tension when you're one point from victory, since a single death will set you back. Since dying is basically a two point swing (you lose one and someone else gains one), I found evasion to be almost as, if not just as important as scoring kills. If you can successfully avoid death, you're saving your self a whole point, which is huge since the gametype is only first to five. It also presents the interesting dynamic of prioritizing targets; If one player only needs one more kill to win, it would be wise for the other players to focus on them, since killing them will set them back a point and get them out of the "check" position.

I have nothing but good things to say about the player count and map design. Four players seems like an unusually low number for an arena deathmatch shooter, though it makes the match feel very intimate. Instead of maybe running into the same guy two or three times over the course of a match like in bigger player count games, I was constantly encountering the same players. When people get good at the game, I think significant mindgames might develop within a single match, since players will definitely have enough time to feel each other out. Regarding match pacing, the time before and between encounters felt perfect. The single map on display is pretty spectacular, being a small and compact size without shoving players in each other's faces constantly. It's a great balance and paced fluidly quickly without feeling haphazard and overwhelming.

I've already spoken on the art style. Pretty much everything in the environment is white, and pretty much everything players can interact with is colored (held enemy weapons, pick ups, etc). The game is very easy to process and it runs at a smooth 60FPS, barring occasional dips that last one or two seconds (but hey, pre-alpha).

As far as things that can be improved...a lot of it was covered in the post-match feedback sessions with Jaffe and crew. Really awesome for them to do that. Though one thing I kept forgetting to mention was that the melee attack felt very difficult to use. There's a forced lunge when a player uses it, which can make it very difficult to connect. I tried using it a fair amount and never had any luck. I'm a bit concerned the spawning process may get repetitive, though it didn't bother me in my time with the game.

Overall, I'm very excited for the game. With such little content in the PSX pre-alpha build, the game was still a blast. Just very addictive to play, and I kept wanting to go back and experiment more with the mechanics. Seriously, try it out if you're at PSX.
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2 vs 2 seems right. Good impressions, I was worried but this sounds fun.
 
They should hold a contest where fans can send in their pen and paper drawings of characters they make up, and the winner(s) get their characters put into the game.
 
BlackBuzzard said:
Yeah same. I love when ttk is high it actually gives you time to react.
Click to expand...

And you need to react. Evading death in this game is so, so important. Being set back a point by getting killed feels awful, but narrowly escaping a perilous encounter and grabbing a health item feels amazing in return.
 
The Xtortionist said:
So I played a total of five matches today. For anyone who doesn't know, Drawn to Death, as showcased at PSX, is a four player deathmatch-style third person shooter. Similarities can be drawn to Twisted Metal

Player health is high in Drawn to Death. Like, really high. Not frustratingly so, but it takes a large number of shots to down a player. The upside is that there's no regenerating health, except for one specific character. There are health pickups on the map
Click to expand...

I was "eh" up until reading this but it sounds fantastic based on your description of it.

If comparisons can be drawn to Twisted Metal I'm there. Really hope this ends up being great.
 
The Xtortionist said:
So I played a total of five matches today. For anyone who doesn't know, Drawn to Death, as showcased at PSX, is a four player deathmatch-style third person shooter. Similarities can be drawn to Twisted Metal, as there are multiple characters to choose and each of them has two unique special attacks, along with additional abilities. For example, three of the characters can press L1 to perform a quick lateral dodge on ground or in the air, but the fourth presses L1 to temporarily cloak instead.

Mechanically, the game is very dense. Each character can double jump and three of them can perform the lateral dodge. One character can press L1 in the air to fly around the map. This character also triggers a self-destruct when they die, which is completely unique to that character. I believe every character has a "rage mode" ability (triggered when below a certain health %), though I didn't encounter any others. I'm addition to the double jump and dodge, each character has two special attacks and two firearms, with additional weapon pickups across the map. Unlike Twisted Metal, where specials are generally a character's bread and butter, the specials in Drawn to Death feel more situational. As a result, I didn't use them much, though the strict time limits for the demo discouraged experimentation.

Player health is high in Drawn to Death. Like, really high. Not frustratingly so, but it takes a large number of shots to down a player. The upside is that there's no regenerating health, except for one specific character. There are health pickups on the map, though the regen health character can't use them. There is also a very minimal (if at all) level of auto aim, so shooting feels very skill based and rewarding. Health is even tied into the spawn system, which sees your character freefalling into the arena. The longer you freefall, the more health you spawn with, so you can spawn quicker with less health or slower with more health.

Scoring is handled interestingly. As mentioned, the game right now is a four player FFA deathmatch. The first player to 5 points wins, and kills are worth one point. The kicker is that dying makes you lose a point, adding an insane level of tension when you're one point from victory, since a single death will set you back. Since dying is basically a two point swing (you lose one and someone else gains one), I found evasion to be almost as, if not just as important as scoring kills. If you can successfully avoid death, you're saving yourself a whole point, which is huge since the gametype is only first to five. It also presents the interesting dynamic of prioritizing targets; If one player only needs one more kill to win, it would be wise for the other players to focus on them, since killing them will set them back a point and get them out of the "check" position.

I have nothing but good things to say about the player count and map design. Four players seems like an unusually low number for an arena deathmatch shooter, though it makes the match feel very intimate. Instead of maybe running into the same guy two or three times over the course of a match like in bigger player count games, I was constantly encountering the same players. When people get good at the game, I think significant mindgames might develop within a single match, since players will definitely have enough time to feel each other out. Regarding match pacing, the time before and between encounters felt perfect. The single map on display is pretty spectacular, being a small and compact size without shoving players in each other's faces constantly. It's a great balance and paced fluidly and quickly without feeling haphazard or overwhelming.

I've already spoken on the art style. Pretty much everything in the environment is white, and pretty much everything players can interact with is colored (held enemy weapons, pick ups, etc). The game is very easy to process and it runs at a smooth 60FPS, barring occasional dips that last one or two seconds (but hey, pre-alpha).

As far as things that can be improved...a lot of it was covered in the post-match feedback sessions with Jaffe and crew. Really awesome for them to do that. Though one thing I kept forgetting to mention was that the melee attack felt very difficult to use. There's a forced lunge when a player uses it, which can make it very difficult to connect. I tried using it a fair amount and never had any luck. I'm a bit concerned the spawning process may get repetitive, though it didn't bother me in my time with the game. I also think health pick ups could use a little more "pop" - their models in-game are a bit subtle.

Overall, I'm very excited for the game. With such little content in the PSX pre-alpha build, the game was still a blast. Just very addictive to play, and I kept wanting to go back and experiment more with the mechanics. Seriously, try it out if you're at PSX.
Click to expand...

Very awesome. Jaffe understands multiplayer mechanics very well, and this is sounding great so far.
 
I swear some you are the most jaded cynical and miserable ***** ive ever come across.

The game and idea looks straight dope. Cant wait to try it out. As I said earlier pricing is the biggest issue for me. Keep it under £15 and im more than down.
 
The Xtortionist said:
Overall, I'm very excited for the game. With such little content in the PSX pre-alpha build, the game was still a blast. Just very addictive to play, and I kept wanting to go back and experiment more with the mechanics. Seriously, try it out if you're at PSX.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the wonderful impressions!
 
So disappointing. I'm genuinely happy for those looking forward to this, but after seeing what he could do with God of War, I was itching for another single player Jaffe title.

:-/
 
This looks really unique and imaginative.

Still, I can't help but wonder what happened to that "Supernatural Detective" deal Jaffe was supposedly involved with. Is that still coming?
 
Radec said:
I don't know what to think of this game.

The art style (or the current build) hurts my eyes.
Click to expand...
The decision to have alternate switching textures was bad I think. It's unpleasant to view, and it has awful compression repercussions. Get rid of the jittery effect, and we'll get nice clean texture maps, it'll be more comfortable to view, and more pleasing (if less of a novelty).

People always do this though, whenever it's a sketch come to life, it's as if it's multiple sketched frames, but why? Seems strange.
 
shinobi602 said:
So disappointing. I'm genuinely happy for those looking forward to this, but after seeing what he could do with God of War, I was itching for another single player Jaffe title.

:-/
Click to expand...

Jaffe is one of the few Western developers that are gameplay-mechanics monsters. I am glad this is the game he is making.

Seriously, if there is a Western dev that could make a DMC level style action game, its him.
 
MyAbsolution said:
Sadly that was the least horrible... of many bad design decisions. And it was a horrific one at that.
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That was the biggie for me (outside of the half-assed campaign), that game was my goty for 2012. The online was mostly fantastic when it worked.
 
-MD- said:
That was the biggie for me (outside of the half-assed campaign), that game was my goty for 2012. The online was mostly fantastic when it worked.
Click to expand...

Netcode was fucking butter; matches felt local.

I mentioned the importance of great netcode (and complimented TMPS3) to Jaffe today and he thought I meant the absence of server issues lol. Connecting players to matches is one thing, but the matches themselves need to run amazing online. Twisted Metal got it right, hopefully this does too.
 
Jaffe's games aren't really for me, and this doesn't look like my thing either, but I thought it was classy of Sony to close with it, particularly on the 20th anniversary.

PlayStation owes a lot to him, and I wish his new studio the best.
 
John Bender said:
I'm so sick and tired of all these "hey, let's chose an absolute weird artstyle so it will look like our game is something completely NEW and COOL and something different.....blabla and people are going to think we are geniuses...." games.

I mean look at that:

fWU1AmD.png


What?
"A High School kid is drawing.... notebook..."
Yeah, blabla! It's a "shoot me in the face" shooter.

Ending PSX with this was the joke of the day.
Hilarious! Who's idea was this?
Next time pick Uncharted to end the show.
Click to expand...
Damn son let it all out
 
-MD- said:
I was "eh" up until reading this but it sounds fantastic based on your description of it.

If comparisons can be drawn to Twisted Metal I'm there. Really hope this ends up being great.
Click to expand...

It honestly looks like an on-foot Twisted Metal, so that has me hyped for sure. And you know it's gonna have 4 player splitscreen, aww yiss.
 
I think it looks awesome, and I'm not a big multiplayer gamer. Jaffe knows how to make, at the very least, fun mp games.
 
The game looks really unrefined at the moment. The art is noisy and not in a good way and the shooting seems like it's out of warhawk or something.

I've faith in Jaffe to make something rad but I think they showed it a bit early.
 
I wish it was a different style or was at least colored in, but otherwise it looks absolutely awesome. Could be a ton of fun to play. I like a good amount of strategy in real time shooters. There isn't enough of it so hopefully this delivers.

Also not sure of only 4 players, I would rather have 6 or 8, but we'll see.
 
I feel like the artstyle is going to cause a lot of problems from both seeing what's happening in the match and getting people to give the game a chance. Maybe it needs to be in color? The gameplay looks fun in the video and the impressions from The Xtortionist sounds great though.

Signed up for the early access.
 
Hoho for breakfast said:
I wish it was a different style or was at least colored in, but otherwise it looks absolutely awesome. Could be a ton of fun to play. I like a good amount of strategy in real time shooters. There isn't enough of it so hopefully this delivers.

Also not sure of only 4 players, I would rather have 6 or 8, but we'll see.
Click to expand...

The art style was a bit off putting to me in the trailer, but trust me when I say the game looks fantastic in person. Also, four players feels amazing with the map they have; match pacing is top notch.

Hope to play a few more rounds today.
 
As always with davidjaffe's games, concept looks super cool. Hope it's fun. My only concern at this point is that having so much white on the screen will really fatigue my eyes during longer play sessions. Some shader level modifiers would be cool but that might undermine the gameplay.
 
Surprised by the hate... I thought this looked awesome, maybe I have strange taste.
Arena shooters are always welcome as well. Its not like there's plenty of them...
 
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